Ilhan Omar Claimed 'Black Hawk Down' Operation Killed 'Thousands' Of Somalis

A two-year old tweet by Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in which she claimed thousands of Somalis had been killed in the Battle of Mogadishu, the 1993 engagement between U.S. troops and Somali gunmen that was the subject of the Hollywood film Black Hawk Down, has triggered a fresh burst of outrage.

The tweet in question was unearthed by John Rossomando of the indispensable Investigative Project on Terrorism. Responding to a Twitter user who described the fight as the worst terrorist attack in Somali history, Omar had tweeted, ""In his selective memory, [the writer] forgets to also mention the thousands of Somalis killed by the American forces that day! #NotTodaySatan."

The number of Somali casualties in that battle, in which the U.S. lost more than a dozen soldiers and another 73 were wounded, has been the subject of a debate since the. Capt. Haad, a representative of the Somali National Alliance (SNA) had said in a 2001 interview that only 133 Somali militiamen lost their lives while fighting with US Rangers and Delta Force soldiers. Other estimates have put it as high as 500, but nowhere close to the "thousands" the Omar has mentioned.

Predictably, critics have panned Omar on Twitter after this latest controversy, Fox News reported. It added that Omar's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Omar, once a Somali refugee, has a history of making such outrageous statements. During an interview years back, she laughed at Americans for fearing the al-Qaeda. In a video from that inci dent, Omar had downplayed the genocidal nature of radical Islamic terrorist group. In March, she came under criticism when while defending the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), she described the 9/11 attacks, the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, as "some people did something." The comments were seen by many as an insult to the victims of the attack.

In reply, President Trump had on Saturday (April 14) tweeted a video, which spliced images from the attack and Omar's speech, suggesting that Omar had been dismissive of attacks that destroyed New York’s World Trade Center and struck the Pentagon.

Omar, born on Oct. 4, 1981, in Somalia, fled the civil war there and arrived in the United States 23 years ago, after spending time in a refugee camp in Syria.